April 12, 2009

Season 5 starts here

Yes that’s right. This might come as a surprise to most of you. Let me explain the details.

Originally, we had planned to host the 5th cup before the summer, but such a cup generally takes up a lot of time (2 weeks per match, 7 matches with 128 teams = 14 weeks). We wouldn’t have been able to finish it properly before the summer kicked in. We’ve also noticed there is a bit of a gap league-wise in the last period before the summer, with only a bit of league action. We have decided to fill that gap with our 5th season.

The League is the ETF2L’s main event. Teams of 6 players fight each other in a division-based system, with teams grouped in division by skill level. Our last season, season 4 had 250 teams signed up. That sure made for a fun and interesting league. Will we be able to repeat that this time?

So, what can you expect from us for this season? It will in great lines be the same as the last season. There will be a few changes. The following details will be addressed:

Rule changes for season 5

Gravelpit: Change to ABBA style. This means, if team A starts attacking on the first round, then team B will start attacking on the second round.

Map Pool changes: Some redundant maps will be removed, perhaps there will be some shifts in between the primary/secondary mappool, like freight. Also, if the mapping contest ends in time, the winner will be at least added to the secondary map pool. The final map pool will be announced later.

1st/2nd mappool: Division 1 will continue with choosing only maps from the primary mappool as they requested last season. We will hold a poll for division 2 about this as well. For the other divisions, the primary/secondary mappool structure will remain as it is now.

We will introduce a new winlimit: If, during a game, the difference in points is 5 or more, that map is over. This is with scores like 5-0, 6-1, 7-2 etc. This rule is in effect on linear cp maps only (cp_badlands, cp_granary etc.). Capture the flag maps, payload maps and AvD maps (dustbowl, gravelpit) will not be affected.

Of course if you have any other ideas/suggestions for the coming season, feel free to speak your mind. We have taken in account the suggestions posted in this thread, but if you feel you have anything else to contribute, don’t hesitate to let us know.

Season 5 dates

Signups open: 12-04, 20:00 CEST (today)

Signups close: 26-04

Provisional divisions: 30-04

Final divisions: 04-05

Map picks start: 05-05

Matchweek 1 start: 11-05

…

Matchweek 9 start: 06-07

Matchweek 9 end: 19-07

This will also mean we probably won’t have time to play playoff matches at the end of the season. If necessary, playoffs will be held after the summer, somewhere before the start of season 6.

(every team, once signed up, will end up on the waiting list untill his team is checked by an admin)

5th cup canceled

With season 5 starting, we can’t have the 5th cup starting at the same time, as it would get a bit busy. So this competition is canceled until further notice. We will probably start the 5th cup after the summer.

Impersonating admins

We have recently noticed some people impersonating members of our admin staff. For those people: consider yourself warned. We take this very seriously. If we see this kind of behaviour after today, it will be punished as we see fit.

April 11, 2009

Jokes were made throughout the community about silence around the anti-cheat team. It took us a bit longer this time, because we uncovered a new way of tracking cheaters and stumbled upon a lot more than we could have expected. All playoffs and season places affected by this will be adjusted accordingly, as soon as possible. I will keep it short because the list itself is quite long. The following players have all received a ban of 1 year from all ETF2L activities.

While researching one of the above mentioned cheaters, we ran into this guy who was using a very blatant aim bot. He is not registered at etf2l (yet), but we decided to be safe in this case and ban him in advance.

“cN exzntrc” STEAM_0:0:20225226

We sincerely hope this is the last time we have to act on cheating, but we will definitely keep our eyes open.

April 10, 2009

Happy Easter to everyone & have fun reading these announcements from our official Season 4 sponsor SteelSeries – maybe you will win WoW!

SteelSeries partners with Team Evil Geniuses

COPENHAGEN, April 7th, 2009 – SteelSeries, the leading manufacturer of gaming peripherals and accessories, today announced its sponsorship of Evil Geniuses (Team EG), North America’s premier professional gaming organization.

First founded in 1999, Evil Geniuses is North America’s premier professional gaming team. With more than 50 players from both the United States and Canada, Team EG truly consists of the finest gaming talent North America has to offer, in a wide range of games such as Counter-Strike, DotA, Guitar Hero, Quake, Unreal Tournament, and World of WarCraft. Over the years Team EG players have accumulated numerous podium placements at the world’s most prestigious eSports tournaments.

“No other gaming organization in North America has accomplished as much as Team EG; add to that an ever-growing global fanbase, and it is a logical choice for us to sponsor them,” said Kim Rom, VP of Marketing for SteelSeries. “We’re really happy to expand our operations in North America with professional gamers experienced enough to help us shape, design and develop gaming products, something that will be evident in our upcoming gaming mouse, which has been developed in coordination with such players as fRoD, Storm, and Warden.”

“We are very excited and grateful for the opportunity to represent SteelSeries, both in North America and around the world,” said Alexander Garfield, Executive Director of Team EG. “Based on past experiences, our players prefer SteelSeries products and are thus very excited about this partnership. Not only will our players receive the advantage of that extra competitive edge that SteelSeries’ professional gaming products provide, but also, the experience and wisdom of such a valuable partner will be crucial to the continuing evolution of our brand. We’re also looking forward to coordinating with SteelSeries and helping to develop cutting-edge professional gaming products.”

SteelSeries’ sponsorship of Team EG will be effective immediately, pairing up the professional-grade engineering and design quality from SteelSeries provides with the top eSports professionals in North America. Team EG players will be equipped with SteelSeries mice, mouse pads, keyboards, and headsets for both practice and tournament competitions. More information about Team EG at www.myEG.net.

SteelSeries announcing Facebook Contest

SteelSeries is announcing an exciting four week contest on our Facebook site together with Brady Games, Jinx and Upperdeck, giving away the Ultimate World of Warcraft Prize Pack to one fan once a week during April.

Each package consists of:

World of Warcraft MMO Gaming Mouse

SteelSeries Zboard Limited Edition Keyset (Wrath of the Litch KingTM)

Zboard Gaming Keyboard

SteelSeries 5C Limited Edition Mouse Pad (Frost Wyrm Exclusive)

SteelSeries Qck Limited Edition Mouse Pad (Lich King Exclusive)

Wrath of the Litch King Strategy Guide (www.bradygames.com)

World of Warcraft® Atlas Set (www.bradygames.com)

$100 World of Warcraft® Apparel Gift Certificate (www.jinx.com)

World of Warcraft® Trading Card Game – Drums of War 2 Player Starter Set (www.upperdeck.com)

April 6, 2009

5th Cup

The fourth issue of the probably most popular 6on6 cup ended a few weeks ago. Team Dignitas again showed their strength by winning their third cup title against Team CoolerMaster in the final. But will they manage to defend this title against 255 other TF2 teams?

The 5th ETF2L Cup is starting soon and with a doubled up slot size of 256 possible participants. Every interested TF2 team which has suitable pings on European servers is invited to take part in the biggest European TF2 cup ever. Fixtures will be randomly generated by our IRC bot which will give lower skilled teams the chance not to meet a top team in the first rounds… :)

Details

Gamemode: 6on6, Classlimit 2, Medic- + Demomanlimit 1

Winmode: Best of 3 Maps with possible decider round on each map

Sign Ups open: Wednesday, 15th April, 20:00 CEST

Sign Ups close: Sunday, 26th April, 18:30 CEST

Round 1 – IRC Live Drawing: Sunday, 26th April, 19:00 CEST

Round 1 – Schedule Deadline: Sunday, 3rd May, 23:59 CEST

Round 1 – Match Deadline: Sunday, 10th May, 23:59 CEST

Soldier 1on1 Cup – 50 € winner takes all tournament

Some time ago we finally found a way how we can gain some money for our competitions. Sadly it’s not enough for a decent 6on6 tournament yet, so we have decided for some unconventional prize money tournament: a Soldier 1on1 Cup.

Who is the best Soldier in Europe and will take home a total cash prize of 50 € against 255 other participants? This will be decided in the upcoming weeks on the most favorite duel map “duel_duel2_pro”. Get yourself a new rocket launcher and start training duels!

Details

50 € prize money for the winner

Slots: 256

Map: duel_duel2_pro

Specific rules will be published soon

Sign Ups open: Wednesday, 15th April, 20:00 CEST

Sign Ups close: Sunday, 26th April, 23:59 CEST

Round 1 – Schedule Deadline: Wednesday, 29th April, 23:59 CEST

Round 1 – Match Deadline: Sunday, 3rd May, 23:59 CEST

Season 4 awards: nomination phase

As we had in every season so far, there will be season awards for outstanding players/teams again. We decided for some changes to the previous seasons – see below for all separate award details. Have fun nominating!

All public award polls (except Player/Frag of the Season) will start on Monday, 13th April. Nomination threads will close Sunday, 12th April, at 23:59 CEST.

Award overview

Frag of the Season award [see below]

Most Surprising Team – [Nomination Thread] – top 5 nominations will be part of the public poll

Fairplay Award – [Nomination Thread] – top 5 nominations will be part of the public poll

Division 3 team of the Season – all division 3 winners nominated

Division 4 team of the Season – all division 4 winners nominated

Division 5 team of the Season – all division 5 winners nominated

Division 6 team of the Season – all division 6 winners nominated

Most Underrated Player – [Nomination Thread] – only players from Div3-6 can be nominated – top 5 nominations will be part of the public poll

Demoman of the Season – [Nomination Thread] – top 5 nominations will be part of the public poll

Heavy of the Season – [Nomination Thread] – top 5 nominations will be part of the public poll

Medic of the Season – [Nomination Thread] – top 5 nominations will be part of the public poll

Scout of the Season – [Nomination Thread] – top 5 nominations will be part of the public poll

Sniper of the Season – [Nomination Thread] – top 5 nominations will be part of the public poll

Soldier of the Season – [Nomination Thread] – top 5 nominations will be part of the public poll

Player of the Season – all separate class of the season winner + most underrated player will be nominated

Frag of the Season

Who made the best and most skillful frag in a Season 4 match? Any scene from a Season 4 Division 1-3 match can be send in as application for the “Frag of the Season Award”. Our staff will choose the top 5 of all applications which will be included in a special nomination video made by Sehbeben and take part in the official public poll. We hope for some nice scenes :)

Rules

scene has to be from a Season 4 match

your scene shouldn’t be longer than 20 seconds

only scenes from div1-3 matches allowed

any class allowed

only one application/player allowed

top 5 will be chosen by the staff and be part of a nomination video by Sehbeben

The last Highlander Cup round ended with a pretty big surprise by Game Control beating last cup’s champions Second to Last. Anyway, still 5 out of the top 8 seeded teams are in still in and some of these will meet each other now. If you are interested in some high skilled Highlander matches, watch out for the Source TVs!

Also the Basketball and Instagib Cup have reached the Quarter Finals. Which teams will keep their winning streak and be take part in the Semi Finals? We will know soon – good luck to all remaining teams!

Edit: Please also update your Instagib server with newest version 1.1.5 [Release Info]. Besides also a plugin to get working player scores has been released [Release Info].

Playoffs

Of course Season 4 isn’t finished by now; the playoff phase is starting right now. These playoffs are splitted into Pre-Playoffs with position decider matches for teams which are tied in points and the normal Playoff matches due to our Promotion / Relegation System. All playoffs with fixed teams have been generated; all others will be generated when both opponents are clear. Please contact your opponents and schedule your matches asap! [Playoff Fixtures]

Pre-Playoffs

Schedule Deadline: Monday, 6th April, 23:59 CEST

Match Deadline: Sunday, 12th April, 23:59 CEST

Gamemode: Best of 3 Maps, possible decider round on all maps if maps end in a tie

Fixed Maps: 1. cp_granary 2. cp_badlands 3. cp_gravelpit

Division 1, 3rd place decider: Team CoolerMaster vs. weapons of the rebelion

Division 2a, 2nd place decider: dmg. vs. FakkelBrigade – 1:2

Division 2b, 2nd place decider: jAgarna vs. Plan-B – 0:2

Division 3b, 2nd place decider: Carpe diem vs. Euphoria – 2:1

Division 4a, 6th place decider: cause we can vs. OutPlayed – 0:2

Division 5e, 4th place decider: SMS vs. WDW

Division 6a, 2nd place decider: dA vs. Presence – 0:2

Division 6a, 5th place decider: Xeno vs. UZ

Division 6b, 5th place decider: Gurka vs. imperial – 2:0

Division 6e, 2nd place decider: Rogues vs. Xplosion – 0:2

Playoffs

Schedule Deadline: Wednesday, 15th April, 23:59 CEST

Match Deadline: Wednesday, 22nd April, 23:59 CEST

Gamemode: Best of 3 Maps, possible decider round on all maps if maps end in a tie